PRESENTATION FILE - FEBUARY 2022

prologue

For the past ten years, collectives of architects have been questioning the architecture
profession, its posture and its role through practice. They propose to reinvest the
architectural project in its political, social and cultural dimensions by taking an
interest in the place of the inhabitant in the making of his common spaces. They
claim values of empowerment of non-expert actors, frugality and ecology and propose
alternatives to top-down decision-making mechanisms that are too far removed from
inhabitants’ real social and ecological needs.

The need to exchange good practices on a European scale has led us to imagine
bridges between several actors in making the city in Europe. After many meetings, we,
Collectif Etc, are starting an international collaboration to bring these subjects to the
forefront by inviting other actors.

By training experts, schools of architecture have a crucial role in alerting students

to their responsibilities in the face of contemporary issues, both as citizens and
as future architects. Today, we wish to offer architecture students and teachers the
opportunity to collaborate on concrete projects to allow immersion and confrontation
with real situations.

Interested in the «commons» movement, we imagine collaborating with schools

of architecture to support local communities, active in transforming their living
environment and willing to invest in the design and construction of their shared
spaces.

Thus, through this European project, we propose to create the conditions for natural
synergy between these different actors: students, teachers, local communities and
collectives of architects around projects that are situated, valuable and concrete.
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ASOC
SHORT BRIEF

an Architecture School of Commons project is

training interested in building bridges between schools of
citizen architecture, local community projects and a
architects generation of young activist professionals organized
in collectives of architects.

Partly financed by the Erasmus + programme, this partnership in higher education takes place in
three European countries (France, Italy, Greece). Architecture School Of Commons proposes
integrating new alternative pedagogies in schools of architecture as close as possible to
contemporary social and ecological issues.

This takes the form of intensive learning-

by-doing workshops, involving all
partners and producing substantial
changes. Investing in disused buildings Local communities
and federating communities through open build common
building sites and convivial moments will places to face social
be some of the elements aiming to build and environmental
a network of exchanges of practices on a emergencies
European scale.

This European strategic partnership is

collectives OF today composed of three schools of

ARCHITECTS rethink a architecture (ENSA Grenoble, Politecnico

di Torino and NTUA Athens), three
changing profession’s
collectives of architects (Collectif Etc (FR),
roles and responsabilities
Zuloark (GR), Orizzontale (IT)) and three
local communities organised around
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common places in France, Greece and

Italy (Les Tracols (FR), Les Seppie (IT),
Tirilab (GR)).
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contextualized
goals

Acting and experimenting in a crisis context

In economic, democratic and ecological crises,

many civil society initiatives have emerged over the How
last ten years in Europe. Often creating «common
can local
places», they aim to promote solutions adapted
communities
to the social and ecological needs of local
be involved
communities.
in the design,
construction
These resource centers bear witness to the richness
and
of an original process based on social ties and
management of
horizontality. Whether in rural or urban areas, they
echo contemporary reflections on «the commons»
their common
and reveal another way of doing architecture. spaces ?

How can collective architectural

projects be supported in a context of
austerity and lack of public resources?

How can the act of building

collectively face contemporary challenges,
transforming former built heritage and
using local or reused materials ?
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 IA
GREECE - TIRILAB INITITATIVE - MAPPING THESPROT
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 Constructing with other methods

Our approach aims to make everyone an

actor in transforming their environment. Thus, Creating links
students are not the only ones to learn between formal, non-
during the intensive workshops. Local formal and informal
communities, collectives of architects and education through
professors also learn from these collective the development of
experiments. Between formal and informal alternative teaching
education, we create the conditions for
methods.
collective emancipation through group
intelligence and not only a hierarchical one
from the knower to the student.

Supporting
involved local Through these experiments, teachers will be

communities by helping able to draw hypotheses that they integrate

into the curricula of traditional educational
them to think, dream,
programmes. By iteration, these experimental
manage and build their
workshops will define the critical elements of a
spaces with inclusive
pedagogy engaged in the field to defend active
methods.
citizenship within the institutions.

It is here that the dream of a different architecture practice, necessary in the face
of social and environmental challenges, can be built. It is here, in the students, that
the desire to develop their tools to transform this profession without repeating its most
obsolete mechanisms can be born.

To question the diversification of

the architectural profession and its
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FRANCE - LES TRACOLS - LA PLACE DES POSSIBLES
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down-to-earth and
fruitful actions

In-situ collective workshops training

forthcoming activist-architects

We propose a pedagogy located close to social realities, and we wish to make

students aware of contemporary issues. Subjects such as third places, sustainable
renovation of disused buildings, open building sites, self-management of citizen groups,
creation of commonplaces, etc., are the basis for questioning the responsibility of
today’s architects and their potential role in tomorrow’s world.

We wish to take students and their teachers out of the school to pose the hypothesis of
territorialized architecture schools and build institutions involved in the social and
ecological transformations necessary to respond to contemporary emergencies.

Narrative, scientific
and pedagogical contents

1. Organize in situ workshops in two stages: the first stage will involve meeting the
actors and the site, sketching and writing a collective narrative linked to the local
community’s real needs to develop their project. The second stage consists of concrete
construction in the image of a participative building site that will directly equip
each study site.

2. These workshop times will allow us to test, make and produce content to
analyze these experimental approaches. They will be disseminated through
a dedicated digital platform, widely accessible, thus presenting all the working
hypotheses tested in the field. This platform will therefore integrate all the information:
the presentation of the actors, the experiments, the story of these adventures, the
pedagogical programmes elaborated by the teachers and the scientific articles written
on the different subjects addressed.

3. Develop a communication strategy at several levels: local, national and European,

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around the organization of conferences in schools of architecture, symposiums and

large meetings in the places studied and others, which share the same values.
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a collective
agenda

A couple of key moments

We have chosen three specific territories: Saint Laurent en Royans, a village in Drôme,
France; Belmonte, a town in Calabria, Italy; and a network of villages in Thesprotia,
Greece. These three European rural territories have similar characteristics:
reduction of public services, depopulation, ageing of the inhabitants, and the existence
of a disused and vacant built heritage.

In each of these territories, a local community already organised and inaction is

developing a project to transform places for the benefit of the inhabitants and the
region: «La place des possibles», led by the Tracols association in France; «La casa di
BelMondo», led by the Le Seppie association in Italy; «Mapping Thesprotia», led by the
Tirilab association in Greece.

Each year, we propose setting up intensive workshops, twice a year, which will
bring together all the partners and several communication events, which will
widely disseminate the experiences, results, and questions linked to these moments of
experimentation.

These intensive workshops will be organised by a duo of schools of architecture and

collectives of architects over three consecutive years: Collectif Etc and ENSA Grenoble
in France (2022) ; Orizzontale and Politecnico di Torino in Italy (2023) ; Zuloark and
NTUA National and Technical School of Athens in Greece (2024)
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schools of
architecture

Institutions promoting
grassroots initiatives
By training experts, the schools of architecture have a crucial role in showing
students their responsibilities in the face of contemporary challenges, both as
citizens and as future architects. We regret today the lack of pedagogical situations
that allow the implementation of experiential and cooperative learning to co-design
and co-construct projects carried out by groups of people with concrete issues and
impacting their territory. We propose creating natural synergy between the actors:
students, local communities, and architectural collectives around practical and
concrete projects.

Several schools of architecture are now partners in the project.

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France
FRANCE - - ECOLE NATIONALE D’ARCHITECTURE DE GRENOBLE

Roberta Ghelli
Architecte DE / Docteure en sociologie
MCF associée TPCAU / ENSA Grenoble
Chercheure CRESSON - UMR Ambiances Architectures Urbanités
Chercheure associée PAVE - Centre Emile Durkheim

Sébastien Fabiani
Architecte et co-gérant de NA architecture
Maître de conférence associé ENSA Grenoble

Théa Manola
Maîtresse de conférence en Sciences Humaines et Sociales ENSA (SHSA) - ENSA Grenoble
Architecte DPLG
Urbaniste
Docteure en Urbanisme, Aménagement et politiques urbaines
Chercheure CRESSON - UMR Ambiances Architectures Urbanités

Italy
ITAL IE - POLITECNICO DI TORINO

Ianira Vassallo
Assistant professor in urban project at DIST (Interuniversity Department in Science,
Project and Policy of Territory) of Politecnico di Torino.

Greece
GRECE - NATIONAL AND TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS

Nicholas Anastasopoulos
Doctoral Thesis, National Technical University of Athens
Associate Professor of Architecture
Associate Dean of Academic Initiatives
Professor and lecturer at the National Technical University of Athens

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grassroots
communities

Dream of more solidarity,

build both places and bonds

«Making the common» in architecture takes on a very concrete meaning: how can
places emancipate local communities by offering them resources, training,
access to various tools, whether material or immaterial and cultivate a culture of
collective self-management?

Some rural areas are pioneers in creating «common» places, which combine work,
culture and collective services - often replacing public services that are absent and/or
being destroyed. The development of these places is often limited by technical and
economic problems, where collectives of architects will play the role of facilitators.
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France
FRANCE - LES TRACOLS - LA PLACE DES POSSIBLES

The association Les Tracols places collective intelligence at the centre of its action to
help the most vulnerable people find a place in our society. For the past five years,
together with twenty or so associations, a few elected representatives and technicians and
numerous actors in the area, it has been working on the creation of La Place des Possibles,
based on the needs and resources that they share with the inhabitants. La Place des
Possibles is defined as a third place or «Living Lab» where sharing, collaboration and co-
construction are the key words. The Place des Possibles is a former textile factory, which is
gradually being transformed into an open space and resource for the territory.

Italy
ITALIE - la rivoluzzione delle seppie - CASA DI BELMONDO

RDS is an association of young local and international professionals, operating in Calabria

(IT), with a transdisciplinary approach. They work in the voids of territories, both physical
and virtual, looking for abandoned shells, occupying space and imagining multiple
forms to transform it. They try to create a new community by nourishing it through the
exchange of knowledge around the transformation of an old palazzo in the heart of the
village of Belmonte: the casa di Belmondo. For 5 years, the association, with the help
of the inhabitants, the town hall, architecture students and other local actors, has been
transforming this abandoned building step by step into a «common place», with multiple
uses: gardens, workshops, housing, meeting spaces.

Greece
GRECE - TIRILAB INITITATIVE - MORFI

TiriLab is a local initiative composed of 2 urban architects, and has mapped and identified
more than 20 settlements in the hinterland of the Thesprotia region that show a variety
of initiatives, mainly self-managed by women, that over the last three decades have
organised themselves against an almost routine oppression. Since 2019, the association
has organised numerous meetings and workshops establishing networks between its
initiatives, and studying the needs of these initiatives and of the territory especially on
shared spaces of care around the kitchen. Together, they imagine the transformation of
abandoned buildings (schools, wash houses, sheepfolds).

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FRANCE - LES TRACOLS - LA PLACE DES POSSIBLES

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ITALY - la rivoluzzione delle seppie - CASA DI BELMONDO

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GREECE - TIRILAB INITITATIVE - THESPROTIA

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collectives of
architects

Reconsider architects’roles
and responsabilities

Over the last ten years, new ways of doing architecture have shaken up the
architectural profession. These «collectives of architects» most often claim a sharing
of the project, action in the field via open building sites, economies of means and new
forms of governance.

Their existence is complex and militant and is part of a history of counter-culture in

architecture, claiming notions of empowerment of non-expert actors, frugality and
ecology. These groups often criticize an architecture that consumes a lot of raw
materials and top-down decision-making mechanisms that are too distant from the
real social and ecological needs of the inhabitants.

Our project questions the role of architects in the making of «commonplaces»,

whether material by concretely transforming places or immaterial by helping to
federate users around open and singular building sites. By sharing the project,
organizing available and educational worksites, and unblocking legal or technical
points, the architect allows communities to invest in places with horizontality and
empowerment.
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France
FRANCE - COLLECTIF ETC

Since 2010, the Collectif Etc has been supporting concrete initiatives in the fields of
architecture, urbanism, art and design. It proposes to make collective fabrication a tool for
emancipation, solidarity and reflection to build a fairer and more sustainable world. The
Collectif Etc is an association based in Marseille and in the Drôme, and occupies places
with other actors of the territory. It is composed of a collegial management and a salaried
team of five architects and an administrator with a horizontal functioning, as well as about
twenty regular collaborators.

Italy
ITALIE - ORIZZONTALE

Orizzontale is a collective of architects based in Rome whose work crosses the fields of
architecture, urbanism, public art and DIY practice. Since 2010, the association has been
promoting projects of common spaces, giving shape to both rejected and invisible images
of the city. These projects have been the testing ground for new types of collaborative
interactions between city dwellers and urban spaces as well as opportunities to test the
limits of the architectural design process.

Greece
GRE - ZULOARK

Zuloark is an architecture and urban planning firm founded in 2001. The firm develops
fluid and collaborative professional working models and creates environments of co-
responsibility through collaborative projects in Europe. As an architectural platform,
Zuloark is currently based in A Coruña, Berlin, Bologna, Madrid and Morfi.

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contemporary
references

About alternative pedagogies

COLOMINA Beatriz, GALAN Ignacio G., KOTSIORIS Evangelos, MEISTER Anna-Maria (dir.),
« Radical Pedagogies », MIT Press ed., 2022

DE CARLO Giancarlo,
« Architecture et Liberté », du Linteau ed., 2004

DEAN Andra Oppenheimer,

« Rural Studio : Samuel Mockbee and an architecture of decency», Princeton Architectural Press ed., 2022

ILITCH Ivan,
« Deschooling society », Seuil ed., 1971

INGOLD Tim,
« Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture », Routeldge ed., 2013

DEWEY JOHN
«The School and Society: Being Three Lectures»,University of Chicago 1899

About commoning practices

NGO Anh-Linh, GATTI Mirko, HILLER Christian, KALDENHOFF Max, GRUBER Stefan (CMU),
« An Atlas of Commoning – Places of Collective Production », Arch+ ed., 2018

MAGNAGHI Alberto,
« La Biorégion Urbaine – Petit traité sur le territoire comme bien en commun », Eterotopia ed., 2014

Encore Heureux (dir.),

« Infinite Places - Constructing buildings or places ? », B42 ed., 2018

About collectives OF ARCHITECTS

DONAT-CATTIN Natalie (dir.),
« Collective Processes », Birkhauser ed., 2021

ALINSKY Saul,
« Entretien avec Saul Alinsky – Organisation communautaire et radicalité », Editions du Commun ed., 2018

MENU,Flavien (dir.),
« New Commons for Europe », Spector Books ed., 2018
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ITALY
ITALIE- -la
larivoluzzione
rivoluzzionedelle
delleseppie
seppie- -CASA DI BELMONDO
BELMONDO
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 ASOC is an european project interested in building
bridges between schools of architecture, local
community projects and a generation of young
activist professionals organised in collectives of
architects.

AN EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIP
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